The Forgotten One Returns
by Chloe Daioh
Summary: The Long-thought-dead lieutenent of squad ten returns! And with her, she brings endless attacks upon the Seireitei, and a stange riatsu that no one knows. Are these connected to the childish soul reaper? And if so, why?
1. Chapter 1

Rain poured steadily in the Seireitei as a lone figure walked slowly through the woods next to the wall. Her Shihakshou was torn, and soaked in blood, as was the zanpakto in her hand, trailing behind her. Her long silver hair covered her face, which was pale from exhaustion and loss of blood. She took a few more stumbling steps, then pressed one hand against the white wall and smiled. "Finally." She murmured, her voice faint, and weak. She pulled her zanpakto up, and pressed it against the wall. "I'm sorry Gintsuki, I have to do this again. Open, Jigenme!" And the blade became a circle, opening a hole in the white stone, which she stepped through, finally collapsing outside of the Kuchiki manor.

Inside the manor, Byakuya looked up from his desk, out the window into the garden. He could see the black-robed figure near the wall, full upper half of the body leaning over the edge of the giant koi pond, which was almost devoid of the fish by now. "Her." He muttered, rising from the desk, and leaving the room.

In the squad ten office, Toshiro, and Rangiku both looked up with a start. "Captain… is that?"

"Yes. There's no mistaking that Reiatsu. Let's go!"

Byakuya was just stepping out, as Rangiku and Toshiro arrived at the side of the body. Kneeling down, Toshiro brushed her silver hair away from her face, and sighed. "It's her. There's no mistaking it. Plus, there's this." And he held up her right arm, which still had the lieutenant's badge on it. There were gouging claw marks all over it, but the symbols were just visible.

"Umiko Koro. Ex-lieutenant of squad ten." Byakuya murmured.

Toshiro nodded, and closed his eyes. He could still see that day.

"_Me? Lieutenant?" Umiko asked, eyes wide with shock._

"_Yes. I'd really be glad if you agreed."_

_They were sitting outside of the office, facing the training grounds and gardens. It was a warm, sunny afternoon. Umiko's silver hair was braided, with light turquoise ribbons. Her green-gold eyes were shining happily._

"_What about third-seat Matsumoto?"_

"_The day she's ready to be a lieutenant…"_

"_Okay, I get it." She laughed. "I'd be honored to be your lieutenant then Captain." _

"_Thanks. It means a lot to me."_

"_You just want someone to do more of the paperwork, don't you?"_

"…_Maybe."_

_She laughed again, and Toshiro smiled. He had done a lot of smiling those days. It was only one short year later when it happened._

"_Umiko! Get up, please, get up!"_

_Umiko laid still, a deep sword wound in her chest. As Toshiro ran towards her body, she murmured something, before her breath stopped. It had been raining that night. She had died outside the white walls of the Seireitei. They never found the killer._

"Captain." Toshiro opened his eyes to Rangiku's voice. She continued. "We should get her to squad four barracks, before she dies again."

Umiko slowly opened her eyes. She could see a lit ceiling, and two figures leaning over her. One of them was Captain Unohana. The other… "Cap…tain?" She murmured quietly. He nodded.

"I'm here Umiko."

"Captain I'm… so sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about. I'm just so grateful that you're alive."

Tears began to pour silently from her eyes. "No, I… you thought I was dead, and I didn't do anything to stop you from believing that, I just hid like a coward."

"No. You must've had a good reason. Just knowing you're alive…" He caught himself, realizing how much he sounded like Hinamori had right before captain Aizen had tried to kill her. He started to laugh softly. "You're not going to stab me, are you?" He grinned.

Umiko was horrified at the thought. "How could you say something like that? You're mocking me again! You always used to mock me at the worst of times!" She wailed, though she was beginning to laugh herself. They laughed quietly together for a while, as Captain Unohana slipped out of the room, smiling kindly.

"I've missed you Captain." Umiko said, stopping suddenly. You have no idea how much I wanted to come back."

"Then why didn't you?" He asked, his eyes growing sad, longing for the truth that had escaped him for these years.

"I…" Suddenly the bell clanged through the Seireitei as the urgent voice of the announcer calling, "Intruders coming from all sides of the Seireitei! All Captains will lead their squads to the designated areas for immediate defensive actions."

"I've got to go." Toshiro said, rushing out the door, followed by captain Unohana and Isane, leaving Umiko alone.

"No way am I getting left behind." She growled, snatching her zanpakto, and racing off, not even bothering to throw on her black Shihakshou over the white robe. "I've got a few new tricks to show you Captain."

"Hollows! Thousands of them!" Rose the terrified wail. It was a wall of the vicious hollows. They were so powerful, easily overwhelming the weaker soul reapers. Thousands of dead and injured littered the ground, and thousands more were fighting for their lives. In the midst of it all, Toshiro and Rangiku were slicing down the hollows as quickly as possible, but more continued to come in endless hordes.

"Scatter! Senbonzakura!" The tiny blades danced across the sky, cutting the number of hollows down by over half. The remaining soul reapers smiled up expecting to see Captain Kuchiki, but were surprised by a snow-white robe that wasn't that of a captain.

"Umiko!" Toshiro gasped, cutting down another hollow, barely even looking. Everyone was staring at the figure on the rooftop in awe. His eyes found the zanpakto in her hand. It was clearly Senbonzakura, and yet it was in the hands of the small ex-lieutenant. "How…?"

She cut him off by stepping off the roof, falling gracefully to the ground, where the zanpakto in her hand began to glow, and slowly transformed. When the glow faded, Toshiro's eyes shot open. She smiled quickly, and then turned to the hollows. "Reign over the frozen heavens! Hyorinmaru!" And the ice-blue dragon shot through the sky alongside Toshiro's, finishing off the rest of the arrancars. She then sealed the zanpakto, which took its normal form of the long silver blade with the mirror-like guard, and the pale blue hilt.

"What the hell was that?" Toshiro asked his lieutenant as she turned away. "How were you doing that? That's not your zanpakto's power!"

"You assumed that Jigenme was mine. You never asked what Gintsuki's power was!"

"Because I've never heard of a zanpakto that could mimic others!"

"You'd never heard of a zanpakto that could tear holes into the fabric of space either, did you?" She retorted. Then sighed. "Jigenme was my sister's zanpakto. After she died, I used its identity to hide my own. It's nice to have a normal zanpakto for once. Not having to use someone else's power as my own."

"Alright…Just promise me one thing." He sighed, turning to leave.

"Yes?"

He smiled again. "Don't ever use my zanpakto again."

"Heh… sorry about that. I just had to let you know what I could do somehow."

As he left, Umiko returned to the squad four barracks, and sat on the edge of the bed with her head in her hands, at a total loss of what to do. "What am I going to tell him? How can I tell him what I've done?"


	2. Silver Moon Stained Red

That night, Toshiro's dreams were filled with disturbing images. A dark grey mist hung over the Seireitei, and the heavy stench of death hung in the air. He was walking past the destroyed buildings, when the laughter reached his ears. Light, child-like. "Who's there?" He called, though there was no answer except the constant laughter that was achingly familiar. Suddenly the laughter stopped, and the silence became as heavy as the mist that clung around him. He continued walking, though even his footsteps made no sound against the stone roads. From one side, he heard a desperate cry for help, then another, from the other side. Then a whole chorus of voices was screaming for help. Some he recognized. Hinamori, Matsumoto, a few other captains. He ran towards the majority of voices, only to stop in front of what looked to be a landslide. Then, with a wave of nausea, he realized they were bodies. A mountain of his men, and everyone he knew. The eerie laughter started again, happy, bright. His gaze followed the sound to the top of the pile, where a lone soul reaper stood. The mist cleared, and he saw the face, clear as day. Bloodstained as it was, it was unmistakable. Umiko stood, with a maniac smile on her face, her eyes wide with glee. In one hand was the bloodstained Gintsuki. In the other, was a head, which she gripped by the hair. "They all forgot me Toshiro. They all thought they could just move on with their lives, completely forgetting my existence." She was speaking to him, though her gaze was distant. Then it snapped over to him. "You forgot me too." Gintsuki slowly transformed into Hyorinmaru again, and she leapt at him, grinning horribly. "Die Captain! Die by your own blade!" In horror, he stepped back to avoid her, and with a jolt, he saw the head in her hands. It was her own.

Toshiro's eyes snapped open. He was breathing heavily, and had broken out into a cold sweat. Unable to sleep because of what he had seen, he threw on his robes and went out for a walk. He looked up and realized that he had wandered to the squad four barracks by accident. He let his gaze wander to the rooftops where a figure sat, facing the moon. Smiling to himself, he leapt up to sit next to Umiko, who barely glanced at him. "You couldn't sleep either." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah. You should be resting."

"I am, I'm relaxed here." She lay back down on the roof tiles to prove her point. "The moon has always calmed me down."

He nodded, remembering all the times he had found her perched on the rooftop, her silver hair would glow white in the moonlight, as it was now. He glanced over at his ex-lieutenant, expecting to see her smiling, gazing into the past as he had been. He didn't expect her thin face to be on the verge of tears. "What's wrong Umiko?" He asked, leaping to his feet.

"I'm so sorry captain." She wailed, unable to keep in the tear that fell down her cheek.

He smiled slightly. "We've been over this. It's okay. No one blames you. I'd just like to know why you never came back."

"I wish I could, it's just so hard to explain."

"Well, try me."

"Promise you won't hate me?" She asked, looking up at him, her green-gold eyes gleaming with sorrow.

"Umiko." He murmured, sitting down again. "Nothing you could ever say would make me hate you."

"Thank you. Well…" She was cut off by the sudden appearance of an over-powering Reiatsu. "What is that?" She cried, jumping up, picking up her zanpakto from the tiles behind her.

Within a minute, the Reiatsu disappeared, and the night became calm once more, but Umiko still looked terrified, and weakened by its sudden appearance. "I… I think I'm going to go back down to sleep." She murmured.

"Yeah. You go ahead and rest. You need it."

As she leapt down from the rooftop, and walked shakily away, Toshiro returned to thinking about his dream. 'No.' He assured himself. 'Umiko would never do that.' He then jumped down and headed for the office, deciding to wait for summons to a captain's meeting about the strange Reiatsu. There was no telling who or what it was, but for some reason, it had terrified Umiko. The same soul reaper who had been unaffected by even captain Zaraki's terrible Reiatsu, and this had been only about half of that. 'Somehow.' He though to himself. 'Somehow she's connected. Her disappearance, and her sudden reappearance must have something to do with whoever is behind this presence.' Then, something clicked in his mind. Something he had barely noticed, as it was only a brief instant, but her eyes. When she had looked at him to say she was leaving, her eyes had flashed a deep violet colour. He shook his head, figuring he must simply be paranoid. 'She is completely innocent. The only blood that will ever stain her hands is that of hollows, never her own kind. Not in a thousand years!'

As he had expected, there was a captain's meeting called a few minutes after the Reiatsu had disappeared. He entered, and fell in line with the others, wondering what they would do about it, or if they even could at this point. Yamamoto assigned squads two, seven, and eleven to be out patrolling for a strange being inside the walls of the Seireitei, while squads one, three, eight, and ten would search outside the walls. Meanwhile, squads four, five, six, nine, ten, and thirteen would remain on regular duties, while squad twelve's captain would try and get a better idea of where the owner of the Reiatsu could be.

"Now that that matter is attended to, there is that of squad ten's lieutenant." He growled.

Toshiro was startled. "I assumed Matsumoto would remain in her position."

"But Umiko wasn't dead when you named your current lieutenant." Captain Ukitake pointed out.

"A lieutenant doesn't have to be dead to be relieved of their duties." He argued. "Besides, even if she were to return to her position, Umiko is in no condition to perform the tasks required at that level."

"This is true." Captain Unohana murmured. "Her physical wounds have all but healed, and yet her psychological state is far from where it was before this incident. We have been unable to determine the cause, but something happened during her disappearance that has troubled her deeply, but she will not speak of it."

"Then for the time being, Rangiku Matsumoto will remain lieutenant of squad ten. We will discuss this matter at a more convenient time. Dismissed." And the captains began to leak back to their barracks, hoping to finally get that good night's sleep. All except Toshiro, who was now pondering Unohana's words about Umiko's psychological condition, and if that had anything to do with her new-found fear, and that odd purple flash in her eye. He just couldn't be sure.


	3. The Truly Forgotten

The next morning, Umiko was up and as chipper as ever, as if nothing wrong had ever happened. She ran straight to the squad ten office, and started doing the paper work that Rangiku had left so she could go drinking. The habits were indented into her mind, and now that her wounds were healed, she continued to go through with them. Her eyes were focused on the page in front of her when a familiar voice hissed into her ear. _'You think you're free? Far from it! My use for you has only begun.' _ Her heart pounded heavily with horror.

"No!" She murmured out loud. "You're wrong, you can't do anything anymore!"

"Who are you talking to Umiko?" She looked up with a start to see Rangiku standing in the doorway, rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"Ah! Rangiku-san! No one, just talking to myself again." She said quickly, jumping up from her seat.

"Were you doing the paper-work? Old habits die hard huh?" She grinned, looking over at Umiko's work.

"Yeah. I hope you don't mind."

"Oh not at all! You can come and do it any time you want."

"Yeah sure." Then the voice called again. _'Let me show you what I can do!'_

"No!" She screamed, falling to the floor.

"What's wrong Umiko?" Rangiku asked, kneeling down beside her. "You know, you don't really need to if you don't want. I was joking."

"No! No! Get away!" She yelled, as she began to thrash around in pain.

"Did a wound reopen?" She asked, ignoring the order.

Suddenly, Umiko stopped moving, and stood up, drawing her sword. "Die where you stand." She growled, her violet eyes narrowing as she attacked. Rangiku barely managed to draw her sword to defend from Umiko's vicious attacks. She didn't want to hurt her, but it was clear that if she didn't, she would most likely end up dead.

"Roar! Haineko!" She yelled, filling the office with the ashes. They surrounded Umiko, who quickly retaliated.

"Gintsuki! Roar! Haineko!" Came the muffled voice, and a second wave of ashes came around to attack Rangiku. Confused, she tried to dodge them, but was engulfed in her own attack. Then, just as she was about to crush Rangiku in her own power, Umiko's eyes turned back to green-gold, and she sealed her zanpakto. "Rangiku-san! What happened?" She asked, looking at the devastated room.

"What the hell do you mean, what happened? You attacked me!" She said darkly to the little soul reaper, only to stop herself when she saw the colour of her eyes, and they way they shimmered with confusion. She really didn't know. "It must have been an accident. You always were so clumsy."

"Oh. I'm sorry Rangiku-san. I'll be more careful next time."

"Okay. How about you go to sleep while I finish up the paper work. You look exhausted.

"Sure. Thanks, but I'm just going to go for a walk." She murmured as she wandered to the door, and left. She was walking pat the squad nine barracks, when she walked straight into Hisagi, and toppled over. "Sorry. I wasn't looking." She said sheepishly, rubbing her head.

"U…Umiko?" He said, his eyes shooting open wide.

"Yeah. Hi Hisagi-san. It's been awhile hasn't it?"

"Ages. You should come drinking with us sometime, we'll catch up." Umiko was overjoyed that there was finally a person who hadn't commented on her supposed being dead. She'd prefer to forget those times.

"Yeah…" Then it came again. _'Let's have some more fun!' _Horrified, she turned and fled. "I'll see you later Hisagi-san! I have to go!" She ran, hoping that she could get to the woods, and the horrors would pass in solitude. Sadly, it would not be so, as when she reached to woods, she ran straight into Toshiro, who was leading a small group through the woods in search of the strange Reiatsu. Agony tore through her, as she lost all consciousness, and flew into a series of fierce attacks. They didn't see it coming. Within moments the soul reapers were dead, and she was left to face off with Toshiro.

"What the hell are you doing Umiko?" He yelled, deflecting her first strike. The sight of his dead men reminded him more of his dream than he'd like. He now knew that he hadn't been imagining it when he thought her eyes had changed colour. Her purple eyes were filled with nothing but cold rage. He lifted his sword to counter attack when it happened. The two blades clashed, and Gintsuki resonated, opening its past before his eyes. He saw the night that everyone thought she had died. He saw a soul reaper with golden hair, and a snow-white mask force a soul pill down her throat, and proceed to stab the gigai, leaving it to die, where he had found the body. The real Umiko was taken away.

A cold, dark room. Made entirely of stone. There were no windows, and one solid black door with a heavy lock on it. A semi-circle was drawn beside one wall. Another semi-circle ran up the wall itself, creating a full circle. Ten spokes jutted out in intervals, each with a smaller circle at the end. A pair of shackles hung limply from the wall. They were covered in blood. The black door opens, and the unknown man enters carrying Umiko, who is unconscious. He carefully places her down in the circle against the wall, and placed the shackles over her wrists. He removes his mask to reveal that he appears very young, though his cold blue eyes like chips of ice have seen much for his age. "Sleep now, my little angel. For when you wake, you will fall into a hell from which you can never be freed." He whispered to her still form. Toshiro wanted nothing more then to leap at him, and slice that cruel grin from his face. But what was done is done. He could do nothing to save her. Instead, he was forced to watch the cruel dance that played before his eyes. Years of the man's experiments, and strange kidou combinations built up onto Umiko's small body. Her screams of pain and terror echoed through the dark rooms. She trembled in fear whenever he entered the room, though after awhile, she stopped screaming in pain with each new injection or spell. She sat quietly, only flinching slightly. One day, he came in, and undid the shackles. "Farewell my little angel. You've done me a great service, and are about to do me a few more. How does that sound?" She didn't answer, only stared blankly past him. "That's what I like to hear." He grinned, placing his mask back on. He picked her up, and carried her away, dropping her off outside the walls of the Seireitei. "I'm sure you can handle it from here." And with that, he disappeared into the night, leaving Umiko in the same state he, Rangiku, and Captain Kuchiki had found her in.

As he returned to his consciousness, Toshiro saw Umiko's eyes flickering from green-gold, to violet. There were tears filling them. "Please forgive me captain. I would never have returned if I'd known…" She was cut off as she swung at him again, her eyes filled with nothing once more.

"Please! Umiko, I know you're still in there somewhere! You've got to fight it, you can break free!" He pleaded.

"Shut up!" She screamed. "I'll make you all pay for forgetting me!"

"I never forgot…" He started, only to realize that these were not her words. They were those of that strange soul reaper who had started this.

"Captain!" She cried again, returning to herself for a moment. "He used to be a lieutenant of squad ten as I was! He's…" She flickered away, attacking him with even more vigor.

"Release her! Whoever you are! Umiko has done nothing to wrong you. Fight me yourself!"

Swords clashed, metal ringing in his ears. 'Why can't I save her?' He screamed in his mind. Then the voice spoke to him, though it was apparent that Umiko could hear it as well. _'The angel speaks the truth. I was once a loyal lieutenant of squad ten, framed for the murder of my captain. You don't understand it! I did nothing wrong! I would have followed my captain to the ends of the Earth!'_

"Captain! Please don't listen to him, I know the truth…" She started before snapping back.

"Shut Up!" He roared through her. "My captain was a true leader. She was the perfect being! An Angel sent by God to save me from myself!"

Something clicked in Toshiro's mind. 'Angel. He called Umiko his little Angel. Could it be…?' "Umiko! Was your sister Mishiro the captain of which he speaks?"


End file.
